Trading Expectations for Appreciations: A Mindset Shift That Changes Everything

Welcome back to the Daily Mastermind. My name is George Wright III with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education. Today we're going to talk about a topic that I think might be able to help a lot of us that are entrepreneurs that are driving and drilling our goals and working hard, whether it's a side hustle, a business, or a job. and it's this topic of trading your expectations for appreciation. Now with all the craziness and things happening in the world today, I know a lot of people are struggling. They're struggling to find the right mindset to get the motivation and inspiration they need to move forward and it's tough to find productive, positive ways to create change in your life when you're doing it on your own. But whether you're struggling or you are experiencing massive success right now, you can always benefit from evaluating how you look at your life and the filter you use on the situations around you. You know, my biggest solution lately has been focusing on more gratitude and appreciation for what I have in my life. I truly believe that if you trade your expectations for appreciations, you will see a massive benefit in all areas of your life, your business, your communication, your relationships, and everything. And like I said, it's hard as entrepreneurs to do this because we spend our lives working on goals and productivity. And it's a real paradox here that if you do something and you focus on something completely outside that, that it would help you. But I'm here to tell you that if you were to focus your mind and your energy on gratitude and appreciation, you will definitely see an improvement in the areas of productivity, goal setting, as well as results in your life. You just have to remember that it is possible to retrain your brain. We've got to draw your attention back to the fact that you are not your mind. Your mind is just a tool. Your mind is a tool that a lot of times will work against you if you don't train it properly. Because your mind is always working. You may think that by not focusing on growth and personal development or mindset that you just moving forward But your mind is working and it either working for you or against you So why not train it to work for you This concept we talked about many times called neuroplasticity, it's that scientific term that has proven that you can reprogram your mind and you can create new habits and daily rituals and ways of thinking and productivity mentally at any age, at any time. The key is, and the secret to this is just repetition and focus. Those neurons that fire together, wire together. You just have to increase the frequency and consistency of certain ways that you respond and react to things in your life. That's why when you get in a state of negativity or depression or anxiety, the more you're in that state, the easier it is for you to automatically get into that state. Well, the same goes for the other way around. If you're to focus on gratitude and you're to focus on appreciation and you can train yourself to go there quicker, more often, more frequently, more consistently, pretty soon it's going to get easier and easier to do. So you've got to do a couple things here. the first thing I thought I'd do is I just remind you of many, many, many benefits. I couldn't even list them all, of reasons and benefits that gratitude will help you in your life. But let me give you some things outside just that you'll feel better and be happier type of explanation. The bottom line is benefits of gratitude include lower cholesterol, higher levels of good cholesterol. It's actually what happens. You get higher levels of good cholesterol. You sleep better. If you've ever journaled and created some gratitude in the evening, you'll sleep better. It enhances your empathy and it decreases your aggression. It improves gratitude and appreciation will improve your self-esteem because it'll take the focus off you and put it on others. It'll help to lower your stress and anxiety. It helps to reduce levels of hopelessness that people feel right now because they're focused on what they're grateful for rather than what they're lacking in their life. It helps you to overall just focus on happiness and positivity and energy. And trust me when I say people will notice this. People around you will notice your level of gratitude and appreciation. And that will attract more to you in your life So those are all reasons And I could go on and on and on but you really have to experience for yourself when you prioritize and put a major effort into appreciation and gratitude rather than your expectations. Because see, we set so many expectations on ourselves that it's almost a, it's a defeating process that we allow ourselves to go through because especially with entrepreneurs, we set the bar so high that when we miss that, rather than looking at the lessons learned, rather than looking at the successes we've had, we look at the fact that we missed the mark. And it's a real catch-22. I've always had a trouble with that because you don't want to set your goals too low and hit them and not get where you want to be. But if you set them too high and you miss them, it could be a negative. However, if you change your expectations to appreciation and gratitude, then your focus won't be on the end result. It'll be on the journey. It'll be on the successes along the way, the milestones, the growth. And focusing on growth will always help you to feel more successful and happier. So what are some ways? Let me give you a couple of suggestions on how you can just cultivate appreciation and gratitude in your life. One would be immediately on waking, take five minutes to think of the things that you're grateful for. Take five minutes first thing every morning. Another way is to recognize and reward people around you. Make it a game. You know, listen, try to acknowledge and verbally appreciate people around, at least three people a day. You know, thank you for being here. I appreciate your support. I appreciate your friendship. Thank you for your assistance. Thank you. Thank you. You know, as you express that appreciation, it'll become habit forming as well. Another suggestion is look for the good in any situation. Sometimes it's just simply making it a point to find the positive and avoid the negative in a situation. because if you look for the good, you can train yourself to automatically go there the more frequently and more consistently you do that. Another great suggestion would be to use a token or a reminder. So whether it's a sticky note or a small object, I've had rocks before that have words on them like live laugh love things like that or gratitude or appreciation I actually have one on my other desk that says stay in the moment Things like that those tokens and reminders will help you as well. Another thing I like to do with journaling in the evening, now do whatever you feel is best for you, but when I journal in the evening right before I go to sleep, it's always a good idea to either journal your successes. What happened good today? Find ways. there's always something that you succeeded at. There's always something, even if it's just the growth of an experience or learning, acknowledge your successes in a journal. Write down the three or four or five things you're grateful for. Get in the habit of doing that. That's my best suggestion is a gratitude journal. Or identify the memories that you created or the successes that you had. But these are all ways to cultivate appreciation. And the reason I give you these specifically is these are all daily rituals you can put into your life. So if you create a list of daily rituals and you do these consistently and frequently, that's how you're gonna wire your brain to assist you. See, it takes a little bit of work in the beginning, but once you can set the habit, that tool, your mind is going to be helping you to be able to focus on the positive and then it'll become second nature and it'll help you to focus on your goals and priorities and productivity because you'll be trained to be able to focus on the success. Overall, this is a topic that I think is the one thing that you can do. If you were going to pick one thing, this would be the one thing that would create significant changes in every area of your life. So if you're looking for something simple, effective, easy, to be quite honest, and permanent that can change how you see and interact with the world, it would be to change your expectations and start practicing more appreciation and gratitude. Gratitude and appreciation are the best ways that you can have a healthier, happier, and wealthier life. That's my message for today. I hope that's something that will help and inspire you. Share that message with people that you know. Share our podcast. If there's anything I can do for you, hit me up on The Daily Mastermind on Facebook or Instagram. I look forward to talking with you more tomorrow. Have an amazing day. Thank you.